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India's policies do a poor job addressing the sexual violence that women in the country must face on a regular basis, Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women said Wednesday. Instead of using of focusing on punishing violators, India should prioritize women empowerment and crime prevention, Manjoo said.

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Countries aren't being held accountable for preventing sexual and other types of violence against women because no binding international treaty requires them to, said Rashida Manjoo, former UN special rapporteur on the causes and consequences of violence against women. "UN entities continue to pass resolutions, but they are not legally binding. ... We talk about the universality of human rights, when there's a gaping hole. We need to focus on state accountability," Manjoo said last week.

Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are arming themselves in efforts to expel Rwandan rebels from the country, Susan Schulman writes. The United Nations and the Congolese military deployed forces to the region in 2009 in an unsuccessful campaign against the the Rwandan rebels.

United Nations diplomats said Wednesday that joint United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi may resign soon over frustrations involving Syria. Pakistan is urging the UN Security Council to bolster its support for Brahimi.

United Nations official Rashida Manjoo will visit India for 10 days to examine violence against women in the country, with the UN Human Rights Council then hearing her findings. "My hope is that my dialogues with government and civil society representatives will contribute in some small way to the current discussions and efforts in the fight against violence in the country," she said.